On a glorious blue sky day, I took a bike ride around Lyttelton Harbour. The Port Hills and Banks Peninsula hills surround Lyttelton Harbour and are mostly open tussock/farmland with some steep ascents and great views to the Pacific. In Lyttelton, I took the ferry to Diamond Harbour as part of my circuit.
I was enjoying the ride so much that I wondered about going a bit further and asked the ferry's captain about the condition of some more remote roads (were they sealed or metal). While he wasn't able to give me a definitive answer, he did ask me if I was aware that it was lambing season and that I should stay on the main roads. I was on a road bike so wasn't planning on going off the sealed roads, but it struck me as a really nice comment.
Here was someone who added a little respect for farming into a conversation. He did it naturally, without lecturing and in a genuine and friendly way. It made it so easy for me to want to comply. He sees lots of tourists both local and international and is doing his job, adding value to their experiences and promoting a land ethic. Imagine if we had a nation of people who were in tune with their areas and did their bit to spread a land ethic like the ferry captain. That is what I think Leave No Trace is about. Knowledge-based, educational approaches that make a difference both to people's experiences and their awareness of how to take care of the places they enjoy.
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